


Sleep Well Beast

by allofspace



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-18 13:33:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14214222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allofspace/pseuds/allofspace
Summary: Stiles is jealous of Scott spending so much time with Isaac. It’s totally because someone is stealing his best friend away from him… right? Of course Lydia comes to the rescue because boys with feelings are useless.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this whole thing listening to The National's "Sleep Well Beast" on repeat so like... idk, how else do you make story titles?

For years it had been the Scott and Stiles show. Just the two of them against the world, the only ones who always had each other’s backs. But ever since the whole werewolf thing, Scott has had a pack, albeit a super dysfunctional one. So Stiles has worked hard to be the human representative within the pack. So far, he’s been able to keep it the Scott and Stiles show, with the occasional guest werewolf spot. Until now, that is. Isaac Lahey somehow wormed his way into their comfortable twosome, and Stiles can’t help the twisting feeling in his gut.

The funny thing is, he doesn’t even mind Isaac at first. Well, not at first first. They all had a rocky beginning when Derek took it upon himself to turn Isaac and Erica. But then it wasn’t so bad. Isaac was nice and sometimes even funny (not that Stiles would ever admit to the latter). Scott started asking Stiles if it was okay to invite Isaac along to their usual hangouts. And Stiles was surprised to find he didn’t really mind. But just as the three of them were all growing closer, Stiles began to get an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. It started as a tickle, a slight twist, and turned into what Stiles could only describe as “icky”. 

The most annoying part was that Stiles couldn’t figure out why. He liked both Scott and Isaac and they all had fun together, whether practicing lacrosse, researching the best way to kill the monster of the week, or just studying (when their lives weren’t in immediate danger).

Stiles didn’t know who else to turn to in these times of trouble, when he couldn’t confide in Scott (not that he’d be helpful in this area anyway). So he turned to Lydia. 

“I don’t know what’s happening. Like suddenly I’ve forgotten all my kindergarten lessons on sharing,” Stiles explained. 

“And you don’t want to share Scott?” Lydia asked, taking another spoonful of ice cream from the pint Stiles held between them. 

They were sitting on his living room couch, with some home renovation show playing on low volume in the background. 

“I mean, I guess. What else can it be, right?” Stiles laughed at himself. He knew he was being ridiculous, he just wished he could turn it off. “I mean it’s starting to interfere with our flawless friendship. The other day, we were getting ready for a Star Wars marathon – because honestly, can you believe Isaac has never watched _any_ of them? – and Scott and Isaac were on that little couch at Scott’s and I could’ve just gone and sat on one of the other chairs, but I just had this twisting feeling like I couldn’t let them just sit there together, so I just went and sat right there between them!” Stiles exclaimed. He was still a little embarrassed of how uncomfortable he’d made things, what with the lack of elbow room and all. 

“Between them,” Lydia repeated. Not a question, an observation. 

“Yeah,” Stiles confirmed. “Like I don’t want them to get closer and leave me on the sidelines you know? Like it could be so easy for Scott to just forget me and be with his new friend who has way more in common being, you know, a werewolf and all. Plus he’s like funny, which is my thing by the way. But it’s not like the same funny, you know? It’s this subtle funny that slips by most people. And he’s ridiculously nice, too. I mean he’s pretty much perfect,” Stiles paused. 

Lydia stared at him, waiting for something more. 

Wasn’t it obvious? How was she not getting this? “How am I supposed to compete with that?” Stiles finished, with a wave of his hand and a tone that said “duh”. 

Lydia rolled her eyes and sighed. “Ugh, useless boys.”

Stiles scoffed, acting offended. “No more ice cream for you,” he said as he held the pint close to his chest, protectively. 

“You’ll take that back if you want me help,” Lydia said sternly. 

Stiles wavered only a moment, before giving in and extending the pint again. Lydia smiled, pleased with herself. She took another spoonful before telling Stiles what to do. 

“Just tell Scott you really need some one-on-one time with him. He’ll understand if you tell him it’s important. And just notice how you feel while you’re with him,” she shrugged. 

Stiles considered the plan. “Okay. I guess that’s not too hard. I can do that.”

And with that, they turned up the volume on the TV and finished their pint of ice cream while making fun of all the people on House Hunters who always seem to forget paint is a thing. 

**

The next day, Stiles put the plan into action. 

“Hey man,” Stiles patted Scott on the shoulder after class. “I feel like we never get any one-on-one time anymore.” He tried to sound nonchalant but wanted to make sure Scott would know it was important to him.  
“Yeah, I know eh,” Scott said with a slanted smile. The guy wasn’t great at picking up subtleties. 

“Maybe we could hang out tonight, just the two of us. I just feel like we really need some Scott and Stiles time.”

Stiles waited, hoping this didn’t seem too weird. He didn’t want Scott to know anything was going on. 

“Yeah. Of course, man.”

“Okay. Okay, cool,” Stiles said. That wasn’t too hard. He was sure if he just got some more time with his best friend, he wouldn’t feel so threatened by Isaac joining the group. 

After school, Stiles waited by the Jeep for Scott to join him. When Stiles finally spotted him, his stomach twisted uncomfortably. He was with Isaac. But the two of them stopped, and talked for a second before Isaac went off in a different direction and Scott continued toward Stiles. A tension in Stiles’ shoulders released, but the twist in his stomach remained as he watched Isaac disappear around a corner. 

“Hey,” Scott smiled at Stiles and hopped into the passenger seat. 

Stiles jumped into the driver’s seat and started the car. “Hey.” After a moment he couldn’t help but ask. “Was Isaac upset that we weren’t all hanging out tonight?”

Stiles wasn’t sure what he wanted the answer to be. Maybe Isaac was only disappointed that it wasn’t him and Scott having one-on-one time. Stiles’ stomach twisted tighter at the thought. 

“Not really. He understood…” Scott said, but Stiles could tell there was something more. 

“But?” He prompted. 

“I don’t know,” Scott shrugged. “I kind of smelled something on him that I couldn’t really figure out.”

Scott truly didn’t seem to bothered by the thought, but it nagged at Stiles. 

“Oh. Okay,” he replied. He would just have to put it out of his mind for the night. 

**

The next day, he found Lydia at school. “House hunters tonight?” he asked her. 

“Is that code for your little jealousy dilemma?” Lydia asked with her pretend-ditzy attitude.

Stiles rolled his eyes. “Yes, but I promise there will be more ice cream,” he said.

“Butterscotch Ripple and you’ve got yourself a deal,” she said with a smile and turned away, not waiting for Stiles to respond. 

Later, they both dug their spoons into the fresh pint. 

“So how’d it go?” Lydia asked first. 

“It was good,” Stiles said too quickly. 

Lydia gave him a _look_. Stiles sighed. “It was… okay. It was fine. I don’t feel better like I thought I would.”

“Hmm,” Lydia said dramatically. 

“What?” Stiles said. 

“Oh, nothing. Tell me about what you guys did. Did you talk about anything? Did you talk about Isaac?”

Stiles’ eyebrow shot up. “No. I mean, I was kind of trying not to talk about Isaac. Scott was talking to him after school and kind of blew him off to hang out with me. I wasn’t in the conversation but seeing Isaac walk away felt like I kicked a puppy. Like a really cute adorable puppy that used to have a hard life and then was rescued, you know, so that you feel extra bad for kicking it.” He paused. “I mean, that sounds bad, I don’t condone kicking any puppies but I’m just –“ 

“I get it,” Lydia interrupted, before he dug himself any deeper. “So you just, hung out and avoided talking about Isaac. Did Scott seem weird about it like you were feeling?”

“No. I don’t think he noticed I was feeling weird. We just hung out and played video games. It was like old times. It should have felt like old times.”

“But it didn’t,” Lydia said. 

“No. It didn’t,” Stiles confirmed. He flung his head back on the back the couch. “What is wrong with me?” He groaned. 

“Well,” Lydia started slowly. She was considering her words carefully. “If it didn’t feel any better to hang out with Scott alone, maybe try hanging out with Isaac alone.”

Stiles started to choke on air. “What? How is that going to resolve anything?”

“It might not,” Lydia said matter-of-factly. “I’m working on a hypothesis and this is the second experiment.”

“Great, my life is a science experiment to you,” Stiles said, resigned. He already knew he’d do whatever Lydia suggested if it would get rid of this awful feeling taking over his life.

Lydia waited patiently until Stiles agreed out loud to make plans with Isaac. The thought itself was anxiety-provoking and Stiles really didn’t have the mental capacity to start analyzing that right now, so instead he turned up the TV so he and Lydia could properly hear the renters on House Hunters International complain about how over budget all the properties were. 

**

Stiles really didn’t know why the prospect of hanging out with Isaac alone was freaking him out so badly. They just hadn’t hung out alone before. He tried to think of any situation where they’d even been alone in a room together, and was finding it very difficult to think of a single one. What if it was just completely awkward the whole time? If they were at Stiles house, he’d have no escape plan. But he didn’t even know where Isaac was living and wasn’t sure Isaac would be comfortable with letting Stiles in like that. He didn’t want to be in a public place, because that just felt even more awkward.

Stiles was in class, with a text message open to Isaac. He kept typing and deleting, and realized he hadn’t heard a single word the teacher had said for the past hour when the bell rang. Damn, it was already end of the day and Stiles had no idea what he was going to say. 

As he left the building, he ran into Isaac and Scott. And with that, there came the twisting in his stomach. He couldn’t stop his feet from carrying him over to them and planting himself in between them. “Hey guys!” he said too loud even in his own ears. The twisting in his stomach subsided slightly seeing Isaac and then Scott both smile brightly at him. He clearly hadn’t intruded on anything. 

“Hey Stiles. We were just trying to figure out what to do tonight. Are you in?”

Stiles swallowed. “Yeah, of course.” He kind of wanted to figure all this out before he did something he’d regret and ruin all his friendships, but Isaac was looking like a very cute not-kicked puppy and Stiles realized the twisting in his stomach eased even more. 

“What do you want to do?” Scott asked Stiles. 

Stiles truly didn’t care, but suddenly had his own theory to test. “I don’t know. What do you think, Isaac?” 

Isaac look surprised that Stiles had asked him, but he tried to act cool about it. “Uh, I don’t know either. Doesn’t really matter,” he said. He’d been looking at the ground, but finally looked up at Stiles when he’d finished talking. Blue eyes peaked out from curls that had fallen in front of his face just a little. This time Stiles’s stomach didn’t twist, but instead it felt like it had flipped upside down. And well that was a whole new and uncomfortable thing. 

Stiles pulled his gaze away when a whirlwind of red curls bounced over. 

“Scott, there you are!” she exclaimed. 

Scott looked back at her confused. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Oh nothing, but we have that test tomorrow and I did promise your mother I’d help you pass this one.”

Scott laughed, but looked embarrassed. “Oh yeah. You don’t mind?”

“No, not at all!” she said cheerily. 

Scott turned back to Stiles and Isaac. “Sorry guys, guess I’m busy tonight.”

“No problem,” Stiles said. He looked at Isaac, whose shoulders had curved a little more in a way that made him look smaller than he should ever look. 

“Yeah, no worries,” he echoed. 

Scott turned to go with Lydia, and Lydia quickly winked at Stiles. And oh my god, she was sneaky. Stiles eyes went wide, before he quickly turned to Isaac, nerves suddenly making him a little spastic. 

“Hey, so um, I mean, we can still hang out. If you want. I mean, pfft, Scott’s busy. No problem. We can just… go play video games or watch a movie. At my house. If you want.” The words all fell out in a quick mess before Stiles could change his mind. 

Isaac’s eyebrows were high on his forehead but he was nodding. “Sure, sounds good.” 

And suddenly Stiles didn’t have the uncomfortable squirminess in his stomach, but was finding it almost hard to breathe, and this just couldn’t be good. 

When they got to Stiles’ place, he flailed a little bit, offering food and drinks and telling Isaac to make himself at home. He was trying very hard not to show that he was feeling nervous, because it really made no sense, but he had a feeling he was doing a poor job of it. 

Isaac seemed to just observe him, offering little in the way of conversation to stop Stiles from rambling. 

“Do you purposely stay quiet just to see what will come out when I keep rambling?”

“Sometimes,” Isaac said with a smile. And again, the tightness in Stiles’ stomach eased. 

It was only a word, but there was something in the delivery that calmed Stiles. He could feel his pulse start to slow, his voice returning to a normal pitch. “Because honestly, it’s just common courteously to stop me when I’m gong off like this.”

“It’s more fun this way, trust me,” Isaac said, taking a sip of water from his glass. 

They were standing in the kitchen, leaning on opposite counters across the room. Stiles itched to move. He started opening cupboards on his side, looking for something but not sure what it was yet. Then he moved to Isaac’s side, searching more cupboards. Isaac stayed still, watching Stiles. 

“Snacks, just looking for some snacks,” Stiles said. He finally found an old box of the Ritz cracker cheese sandwiches. “Nice.”

He busied himself opening the package and taking a handful. “Man, I forgot how good these are.” 

“What are they?” Isaac said, innocently. 

“Oh my god, what!?” Stiles exclaimed. “You’ve never had these? Your world is about to be rocked.”

He stretched his arm out to Isaac to offer the crackers. Isaac took a couple and threw them in his mouth. 

“They’re pretty good,” he said once he’d finished them. 

“Pretty good? Come on, these things are the best!”

Isaac smiled. His damn smile was so genuine, it kept catching Stiles off guard. It wasn’t the same as Scott smiling at him. It wasn’t the same way anyone smiled at him. But over and over again, there it was, proving Stiles’ theory. How much evidence did he need before it became fact? Because he was pretty certain now, that making Isaac smile was one of the best feelings ever. 

“Want to play some video games?” Stiles asked. 

“Sure. But…” Isaac stopped for a second. “I want some more of these first.” Isaac snatched the box of Ritz sandwiches out Stiles’ grasp before he could even process the movement. Isaac ran to the living room and jumped onto the couch with a huge grin. 

“I knew you liked them,” Stiles said, unable to contain his own smile. 

They played video games for a while, before deciding to watch a movie. In the dark of the room, on the soft, worn couch, Stiles was suddenly hyper aware of how close he was sitting to Isaac. Was he too close? Was he too far? Where the hell should he be sitting? Isaac had room to move over if he was uncomfortable. Then again, Stiles was pretty sure werewolves had no sense of personal space anyway. 

They were watching Talladega Nights, because Stiles had made it his personal mission to ensure Isaac watched all the classics. Stiles was finding it hard to concentrate over his heart beating in his ears. Did he take too many ADHD meds today? Not enough? Maybe he was dying. His stomach felt like it was in his chest. He almost didn’t notice when Isaac raised his arms in a stretch, and then laid one on the back of the sofa behind Stiles. Almost. His whole body went still.

Did he just --? Was Isaac --? 

He turned his head and looked at Isaac, who was acting completely innocent and not looking at Stiles. Stiles continued to stare until Isaac finally looked back, with a shy smile. Stiles was frozen as the last couple of weeks flashed before his eyes. Sitting in between Isaac and Scott. Feeling jealous that it was the three of them and not two. But he hadn’t been jealous of Isaac spending time with Scott.

He’d been jealous of Scott spending time with Isaac. 

Adorable Isaac, with blue eyes and a sharp jaw and his subtle humour. 

“Wow, I am an idiot,” Stiles said. 

Isaac looked confused and then hurt, and started to take his arm away. And no, that was definitely not what he ever wanted Isaac to feel. “No, no. You keep that there,” Stiles said, grabbing Isaac’s wrist and placing it fully on his shoulder. Then he moved slightly closer to Isaac’s side. 

Isaac was still very clearly confused, but Stiles just went back to watching the movie, and Isaac relaxed after a minute. When he did, Stiles looked back at him, and Isaac was smiling. Stiles moved even closer, tucking his shoulder under Isaac’s, curling his feet up on the couch. 

 

Stiles woke up to his father clearing his throat. Stiles was warm, but his neck hurt, and as he moved to stretch, he noticed another person doing the same beside him. He and Isaac had fallen asleep, curled up in the corner of the couch. 

“School night,” John Stilinski said in his Sheriff voice, which meant ‘time for your friend to go home’. “We’ll talk later.”

And Stiles only had a moment of panic, before he looked at Isaac. Isaac was staring back at him, and smiling, and Stiles could definitely worry about his dad later. 

Once Isaac had left, Stiles went up to bed, sending a quick text to Lydia. 

" _I think I know what your hypothesis was. And it was right. Thanks for the help._ " 

Send. Then quickly he typed out another. 

" _You’re helping me figure out how to tell Scott_ " 

Then Stiles fell into his much too cold bed, and fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More fluff and anxious!Stiles

Stiles woke up feeling excited and then nervous. It’s not like he and Isaac had actually talked anything out, they’d just sort of cuddled. Which was definitely very nice at the time, but now Stiles wasn’t exactly sure where they stood. 

When he checked his phone he had a litany of texts from Lydia. 

“ _I knew it!_ ”  
“ _And of course I’ll help_ ”  
“ _But you’ll have to give me ALL the details_ ”  
“ _House Hunters tonight?_ ”  
“ _Oh and you are welcome_ ”

Which was just all too much for groggy, morning-Stiles.

After quickly showering and throwing on some (mostly) fresh clothes, Stiles debated texting Isaac. It might make things less weird when they see each other at school. He could say something to make sure this wasn’t all just a hallucination. Maybe it had all meant nothing. Anxiety started to build in Stiles’ chest as he chewed his lip. 

“ _Hey, did you get home safe last night?_ ” The text read when he’d finally made up his mind. It was innocent enough and didn’t feel too desperate. 

Isaac’s reply came back quickly, and for that Stiles was thankful. 

“ _Would you be upset if I didn’t?_ ”

“ _Yes… but only because you would have died without ever seeing the Lord of the Rings trilogy._ ”

Stiles heart was beating fast. This didn’t really clarify their situation, but it definitely felt like something to Stiles. It was just impossible to tell over text if Isaac really did feel the same way back. 

“ _I would’ve missed out on a lot more than that ;)_ ”

Stiles threw his phone onto his bed, and flailed his arms. That definitely felt like clarification. 

“Shit,” Stiles swore as he noticed his alarm clock’s bright red numbers telling him he would be late for school if he didn’t leave right now. He grabbed his phone from the bed, and raced downstairs, past his father. Stiles was thankful to be running late, if only to avoid whatever “conversation” the elder Stilinski would try to have with him. Stiles was not ready for that.

He ran into class and took his seat in the nick of time. Scott was in the next desk over and muffled a laugh at Stiles’ disheveled look. 

“Hey, have you seen Isaac today?” Scott asked after class, while they gathered their books. 

“What? Why would I have seen him?” Stiles said defensively. 

“Woah, chill. I just usually see him before school. You guys hung out last night, right?”

“Oh. Right. Yeah. Haven’t seen him though.” 

Stiles hated lying to Scott. Although he wasn’t lying in this particular instance, he felt like not telling him about whatever was going on was a still a big lie of omission. 

“I gotta go. See you later!” Stiles said, rushing off to his next class. 

He didn’t see Isaac until lunch. Scott, Isaac, and Lydia were already seated at a table in the cafeteria. Stiles stopped a few feet away, Scott’s back to him. Scott was talking about something, but Isaac and Lydia both looked up as Stiles approached. 

Isaac seemed to be observing him as he usually did, like he was trying to read all of his body language. Lydia looked excited, how a child might look the first time at the circus. Waiting to see what happens. 

Stiles sat down beside Scott, and across from Isaac, whose gaze dropped to the table once Stiles sat down. 

“Hey!” Scott said excitedly. “I did so amazing on my test. Lydia was such a good teacher.”

“Cool. That’s awesome, man,” Stiles tried to sound interested. 

He was more interested in Isaac’s behavior. The guy was so hot and cold. First flirtatious texts and then avoiding eye contact. 

Feeling brave, Stiles readjusted his posture so that his knees stuck out a little further and one bumped into one of Isaac’s. He looked up at Stiles quickly. Stiles tried to give a friendly smile, hoping to get one in return. Isaac glanced over at Lydia and Scott who were immersed in conversation again. Then gave Stiles a warm smile that put him at ease. Hopefully that meant everything was fine. This was just… unchartered territory.

Isaac stayed quiet over lunch, which was unusual for the outgoing, werewolf version of Isaac they’d all come to appreciate. 

Stiles made some eyebrow gestures at Lydia, which she thankfully understood. “Scott, can you help me with something in the library?” Lydia asked, sweetly. 

“Me? Really?” Scott replied. 

Lydia nodded. “Of course, silly. I just need to do something before lunch is over.”

“Oh no. Really?” Stiles asked, probably laying it on a bit too thick. “Guess that just leaves the two of us. I guess we’ll have to make do.” Stiles sighed heavily.

Scott gave Stiles a confused look, that Stiles noted and then ignored. Lydia and Scott got up from the table and left.

Isaac didn’t look up at Stiles right away, but their knees were still touching under the table. 

“Hey,” Stiles said. 

“Did I say something wrong this morning?” Isaac started suddenly. “I hope I didn’t freak you out. I just didn’t know how to act, so I thought I’d just… I don’t know.”

“Dude! Calm down,” Stiles said. He was almost giddy with relief that Isaac was freaking out as much as he was. “What are you talking about?”

“You didn’t answer my last text. I thought maybe I was… coming on too strong?” Isaac was wincing. This was clearly painful for him to talk about. 

“Oh my god! I’m an idiot, sorry. I was gonna be late for class and if my dad gets another call from the school about me missing, he’ll lose it!”

Isaac breathed out, shoulders falling in relief. “Oh. Okay. Sorry for freaking out, then.” He offered a small smile. 

Suddenly Stiles was the nervous one. He was so unbearably terrible at talking about this stuff. “It’s fine. I was kind of freaking out too. This morning. About, uh, what all this means. Where we stand. And whatever.” He rubbed his hand over his short hair. The sharp prickling in his palm helped distract him a little from his nerves. 

Isaac seemed to gain back his confidence in Stiles’ nervousness, just like the night before. His smile widened to a grin. “Are you asking me to go steady with you, Stiles?”

“What? No. I mean… that’s a bit soon. We haven’t even had a real date yet, so I mean, if anything you should be asking me on a date. And we should probably tell Scott. He’ll like freak out. Hopefully in a good way. Probably not in a bad way. Maybe we shouldn’t tell him. Although if we don’t, Lydia might.”

“Wow,” Isaac said, pulling Stiles out of his racing thoughts. “Okay. We can go on a date.” He shrugged nonchalantly, and then aimed a teasing smile at Stiles.

“Oh. Um. Okay,” Stiles replied, a little stunned. His word vomit only seems to amuse Isaac, rather than irritate, which gives Stiles tight warm feeling in his chest that he tries to push away. Lots of people don’t mind his word vomit… like Scott, and… okay possibly just Scott, but still. 

“And… I agree. We should probably tell Scott. It… feels weird. He’s pack. He’ll find out anyway if we don’t tell him.”

“Yeah...” Stiles considered. “I’ll do it. He should hear it from me.”

The bell rang, and they walked down the halls a little closer than normal until they had to go their separate ways to their respective classes. 

Stiles really needed to consult with Lydia before talking to Scott. He wasn’t good at talking about emotions and all this real shit. Need him to research how to kill some mystical creature based on some crazy lore? Sure no problem. Tell his best friend he wants to date their new friend? Nope. Not his forte. 

At the end of the day, he tried to find Lydia before Scott could guilt him with those puppy-dog eyes into hanging out. Luckily, he found her just as she was about to exit through the main doors. He ran to catch up with her. 

“Hey! Want a ride? House hunters tonight at my place?”

“Yes! Definitely,” she beamed at him. He was pretty sure she was using his turmoil for her own amusement, but she was helpful enough that it didn’t actually bother him. 

“Stiles!” Scott said from behind him. Stiles jumped a little. 

“Woah. Hey man,” Stiles said, and spotted Isaac trailing behind Scott.

“Video games at my place tonight?” Scott asked. 

“I can’t,” Stiles replied too quickly. Scott looked confused and a little hurt. “Lydia and I are actually gonna hang out so…”

“Oh,” Scott replied. Then he shrugged. “Okay. Can I talk to you for a second though?”

“Sure,” Stiles said. His heart began to race a little. Scott was being weird. 

They walked some feet away, leaving Lydia and Isaac to talk about god knows what. But Stiles could only worry so much about one thing at a time. 

“What’s up?” Stiles asked when they were finally far enough away to not be overheard. 

“This is a bit awkward. But do you not like Isaac?”

“Uh… what?” Stiles asked. 

“Well you’ve been giving off a pretty jealous scent whenever we hang out lately. And you’ve been acting weird, like with the sitting between us and stuff. And you just seem like you’re avoiding him now.”

Stiles couldn’t hold back the sharp bark of laughter that escaped him. Scott was surprised. “What’s so funny?”

“I don’t hate him,” Stiles said. The humour died off as his nerves came back. Scott was staring at him expectantly. “I, uh. We… well we hung out last night. Which was cool. And, so I learned that, you know, we get along. And I mean, he’s super nice and funny. And you know me. I’m the funny one!” Stiles was ranting and definitely going off track. This is why he needed Lydia!

“So you did hate him? But after you hung out, you’re okay with him? Then why are you still avoiding him? You were being weird about being alone with him at lunch and stuff.”

“Oh my god,” Stiles said rubbing his hands on his face. “Okay, so it’s like the exact opposite of everything you think.” Stiles had given up trying to actually explain anything, but this seemed to at least get through to Scott on some level. 

Scott stared at him, and Stiles could practically see the wheels slowly turning in his head. And suddenly there was an arm on Stiles’ shoulder. Isaac’s arm to be precise. And Lydia popped up beside them smiling gleefully. 

“Did you hear all that?” Stiles asked. 

“I sure did,” Isaac replied. 

“And then he relayed it to me. You truly are useless at this,” Lydia chimed in.

Scott’s eyes widened. He looked at Isaac, then at Stiles, then at the arm sitting on Stiles’ shoulder. Stiles’ cheeks began to burn red. 

“Wait,” Scott started. 

Isaac sighed dramatically. “Yes, I’m taking Stiles on a date. We are going to be dating.”

Scott was silent. 

“Oh my god, we broke him,” Stiles said, genuinely concerned. “Melissa will kill me. He’s gonna be brain-dead for the rest of his life. He just can’t process this. I should have known it would be too much.”

“He’ll be fine,” Isaac said. 

“Scott!” Lydia said, hitting him on the arm. 

“Cool!” Scott finally said. 

“What?” Stiles asked. 

“My two best friends are dating? That’s awesome!”

“Um, okay,” Stiles said. He hadn’t really known what to expect, but it wasn’t this. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. We haven’t gone on a date yet. It might be terrible!”

“Speak for yourself,” Isaac replied. 

Then Scott seemed to quickly sober. “Wait,” he said. Stiles stomach tightened with worry again. “We can still hang out right?”

Oh, Scott. Sweet, innocent Scott. 

“Dude. Obviously. But now you get to be the awkward third wheel. Welcome to my life. Awesome, right?” Stiles laughed and Scott smiled back. 

And at least for a second, Stiles could feel like things would actually be okay, and wouldn’t have to get weird between them all. He definitely did not want to start thinking about the future and how terrible it’ll be when they break up and… right, not thinking about that. 

Instead, Stiles just wrapped his arm around Isaac’s waist as the four of them made their plans for the night.


End file.
